Jessica Flack

PhD thesis

“Differences versus deficits”: Does use of figurative language point to a unique verbal creativity in autism?

Pragmatics – the area of language requiring inference-making – is widely acknowledged as the most universally impaired linguistic domain in autism, with autistic children showing perceived difficulties with both understanding and producing figurative language such as irony, idioms, and metaphors. By applying the neurodivergence paradigm to pragmatics, my PhD research will challenge this assumption, expanding on initial findings suggesting that these perceived deficits do not appear in adulthood, and that autistic adults may demonstrate a unique verbal creativity which previous methodological limitations have been unable to capture. Understanding autistic adults’ figurative language use will inform fields beyond linguistics, and the adoption of a ‘differences, not deficits’ view may challenge dominant cognitive explanations of autism and shed light on the neurodivergence paradigm as a way of redefining how linguists and psychologists perceive autism as a whole.

Who or what inspired you to pursue your research interests?

My MPhil supervisor, Napoleon Katsos, has largely inspired my interest in this field. He introduced me to experimental pragmatics when I undertook my MPhil in 2023, and our seminars and one-on-one sessions only made this interest grow. Since graduating and working for two years, I have seen first-hand how adopting a ‘differences not deficits’ approach would have significantly aided neurodiverse employees in participating in the workplace, which ultimately inspired me to return to Cambridge and complete further PhD research on the topic.